I will be focusing on professional gaming with a focus on Starcraft/Starcraft2. This real-time strategy game is the exemplar of the pro-gaming world. Matches are cast and viewed in a manner that we would associate with sports. Watching a set of matches between two star players provides for an invigorating experience and just like sports stars, these players are able to make a living through endorsements and advertising. For reasons I have yet to uncover, South Korea has become more or less the epicenter of professional Starcraft gaming. The Global Starcraft League (GSL) is cast from Seoul in both Korean and English andcan be watched online at gomtv.net (gomtv.com for Korean)
An important distinction is that currently, Starcraft2 (being the sequel in content and platform to Starcraft) is what is being followed and cast. It was released this past summer; 12 years after Starcraft first hit the shelves in 1998. A number of the pro players from the first version have made the switch and bring with them both a fresh style of play but also a certain nostalgia for the tournaments of old. Such a player is known as July Zerg who is credited with being more or less a huge badass and destroyer of nerds. As a zerg player myself, I try to emulate (poorly) his manner and style of play.
A certain characteristic you will see among high level Starcraft2 players and professionals is an incredible amount of Actions Per-Minute (APM). An action is a mouse click or a tap on the keyboard. Pro-contenders might have upwards of 300-400 APM which means that they are clicking the mouse and/or taping commands into the keyboard 300 times per minute. It is a tactic called “spamming.” Most of these actions though are useless. The concept behind it is that because Starcraft requires excessive precision and multi-tasking, spamming out commands means that you reduce the possibility that you will miss an actually important action. An example could be double tapping hotkeys for buildings and units in the field. This causes you to jump on your screen between where ever your army is and where your home base is and allows for better reaction timing.
However, having high APM is not what makes a player good and can actually hinder their game if done sloppily (like how I play). And that is also why I love July Zerg, he is a top tier gozu (“pro” in Korean) who doesn’t spam out APM. All his actions are precise and useful and timed appropriately so that he doesn’t need to hammer away at mouse and keyboard to maintain dexterity and timing. In other words, he seems more human than machine.
Gaming as a Profession
I will be focusing on professional gaming with a focus on Starcraft/Starcraft2. This real-time strategy game is the exemplar of the pro-gaming world. Matches are cast and viewed in a manner that we would associate with sports. Watching a set of matches between two star players provides for an invigorating experience and just like sports stars, these players are able to make a living through endorsements and advertising. For reasons I have yet to uncover, South Korea has become more or less the epicenter of professional Starcraft gaming. The Global Starcraft League (GSL) is cast from Seoul in both Korean and English andcan be watched online at gomtv.net (gomtv.com for Korean)
An important distinction is that currently, Starcraft2 (being the sequel in content and platform to Starcraft) is what is being followed and cast. It was released this past summer; 12 years after Starcraft first hit the shelves in 1998. A number of the pro players from the first version have made the switch and bring with them both a fresh style of play but also a certain nostalgia for the tournaments of old. Such a player is known as July Zerg who is credited with being more or less a huge badass and destroyer of nerds. As a zerg player myself, I try to emulate (poorly) his manner and style of play.
A certain characteristic you will see among high level Starcraft2 players and professionals is an incredible amount of Actions Per-Minute (APM). An action is a mouse click or a tap on the keyboard. Pro-contenders might have upwards of 300-400 APM which means that they are clicking the mouse and/or taping commands into the keyboard 300 times per minute. It is a tactic called “spamming.” Most of these actions though are useless. The concept behind it is that because Starcraft requires excessive precision and multi-tasking, spamming out commands means that you reduce the possibility that you will miss an actually important action. An example could be double tapping hotkeys for buildings and units in the field. This causes you to jump on your screen between where ever your army is and where your home base is and allows for better reaction timing.
However, having high APM is not what makes a player good and can actually hinder their game if done sloppily (like how I play). And that is also why I love July Zerg, he is a top tier gozu (“pro” in Korean) who doesn’t spam out APM. All his actions are precise and useful and timed appropriately so that he doesn’t need to hammer away at mouse and keyboard to maintain dexterity and timing. In other words, he seems more human than machine.